My poor, ridiculous dog
2007-08-19 | Filed under Pets |
As previously mentioned, Kiko is allergic to summer. Last year was a Very Bad Scene™ because of hot spots (complicated by a broken toe, irritation under the cast, and self-inflicted injuries while attempting to relieve said irritation). This year, in an effort to avoid the ointment and e-collar and extreme discomfort, we’ve been feeding her Benadryl twice a day and shaving down areas around hot spots. She still scratches, licks, and gnaws, but so far she’s doing better than last year.
For a week or two, she’s gone around with bare patches on her hindquarters, which revealed angry red flesh and ugly scabs. Not very aesthetically pleasing. And I should note that Kiko is a beautiful dog. She has the black and white markings of a field-bred Springer, but is leaner and leggier than that breed. Her feathering’s lovely, and her tail curls up nicely (something she probably did not get from the Springer side of her family; they’re not bred for pretty tails, since they’ve traditionally been docked). When she runs, she’s fast and sleek. And she possesses that particular mutt-flavor of beauty, the sense that this combination will never be seen again, that no other dog will precisely replicate the proportion of whatever breeds went into her genetic makeup.
(And lest you think I am merely partial to my own dog—who is, in fact, the most wonderful little girl in the world—I will note that I do not think that Charlie is a particularly beautiful dog. He’s more on the cute and goofy end of the scale, especially when he gallumps around on his gigantic paws. His facial markings give him a crazy clown expression, particularly when he smiles, and he’s got extra black along part of his lips, giving him a demi-stache.)
But anyway, back to grooming. We’ve been shaving Kiko on the kitchen counter—not at all hygienic, but the kitchen counter rarely is, and if she forms negative associations with being up there then, maybe, she’ll counter-surf less frequently; maybe—and Friday night instead of stopping at shaving individual hot spots Larry shaved more leg. It looked mostly on purpose, so we went around and shaved her side, too. We stopped after that, because we wanted to give her a break and, in all honesty, there’s a certain comedic sensibility involved.
So now we have a half-shaved dog. One side of her body, with the longer fur, is predominately white, with streaks of black (and the occasional silver). The other side is covered with black spots, and has a more equal distribution of light and dark fur. Both sides are pretty (well, aside from the patches of really short fur, revealing the ugly hot spots), but on the same dog they’re hysterical.
But as dog owners go, we’re not that mean. It’s not like we gave her a poodle coif.
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